Mr Cameron claimed it did not matter if people who run the country all come from the same public school he went to: "What matters is what you have to offer your country rather than what school you went to."

But Labour MP Stephen Hepburn called his remarks "outrageous". He added: "It is bad enough he is an Eton boy who has never known a day's hardship in his life. It makes it worse that he does not care about using the old boys' network."